Global Evolution: I Became A Zombie!

A week later, on the Collective's ship.

Cloaking technology.

It wasn't the Collective's most advanced creation, but it was one of the most employed. They had used it to monitor countless primitive worlds.

The galaxy was filled with worlds with life, but rarely did they have enough knowledge to sense a cloaked ship.

Earth was one such world, especially without its technology.

That was why the collective had fearlessly stationed the ship off the coast of California as they prepared to leave the planet.

The interior of the ship was bustling as they were busy performing final preparations before exiting the planet. There weren't many of them, just nineteen personnel.

It was because the Collective had its observers spread throughout multiple star systems. In the name, they were short on responsible personnel. But how could that be when their collective population was over three trillion?

It was just that the Observers were merely seen as relay points for information. The cloaking ship was more than enough to protect them from any dangers of the primitive worlds.

"What's the holdup?" Lo Da, the ship's new commander, asked his lieutenant.

"We're awaiting the final scout reports, sir."

Lo Da let out a sigh.

Much like the higher-ups, he didn't think there was any need to follow the protocols to a tee. At least in these low-grade civilizations. But since it was only one team, it was fine.

However, Lo Da was drunk on his newfound power and saw it as an opportunity to flex it.

"Prepare the engines," he said. "Tell the scout they only have the time till the engine fires up. If they don't board, we'll leave them behind."

"…"

"Have you gone deaf? I gave you a command!"

"Yes, sir!"

Lo Da clicked his tongue as the lieutenant went away.

"This is why you can be too lenient with these lowly soldiers."

He had just leaned back to enjoy his comfy chair when the lieutenant ran back in.

"Sir, we have boogies on the radar—"

"Then stop picking your noses at work."

"Sir… we have unidentified targets heading towards us," the lieutenant said, bringing the radar scans before Lo Da.

More than a hundred blips were heading towards them. Only one was identified, marked in gray, the rest were red. The scout team was being chased by a horde of birds.

"What are you waiting for then? Take them down."

"We can't. Under Protocol C-923 of the galactic rule book, we don't have the authority to engage directly with the primitive native species—"

"Stop with that and fire away!"

"…sir, that protocol is an excuse for the higher-ups not to arm an observation ship. Other than handheld weaponry, we have nothing to use against them."

Lo Da got up, staring out of the window. He had assumed the life of a commander would be easy, but that didn't seem to be the case. Despite having competent officers by his side, the problems were endless.

The creatures were clearly chasing after the scouts but couldn't catch up to them. As things stood, the scouts would get in, and they could leave before the so-called birds reached them.

"Open the bay."

"Sir?"

"I said, open the bay! We can't leave our scouts back here."

Didn't you just say you'd leave them behind?

The lieutenant thought, but didn't voice it. He did not want to end up on the wrong side of a psycho.

However, just as he was about to leave the deck, something hit the ship. The two hurriedly looked at the radar and noticed the scout ship had hit the mother ship!

"What the hell is wrong with those imbeciles!" Lo Da yelled.

[Damage analysis: The secondary fusion engine exhaust has been compromised.]

[Damage analysis: Cloaking compromised in sectors B2 through C9.]

Before they could divert the energy to repair the cloaking device, the birds struck the ship. They exploded upon impact, chipping away at the alloy ship.

It wasn't just the hundred birds they had seen earlier. More of them attacked the ship from every side.

Only then did Lo Da realize that the birds weren't trying to break through the ship, but they were marking it in their blood.

They were making the ship visible!

[Warning: Portside ship bay has been compromised.]

[Report: Unknown entities have climbed aboard.]

[Warning: Please prepare for combat.]

Lo Da didn't bother asking questions anymore. Something was off, and he would not let some bullshit protocol steal his ship from him.

"All units stop whatever you're doing and head to port side bay. Proceed with caution. We do not know who or what these entities are. I repeat, proceed with caution!"

After making the announcement, Lo Da grabbed his own energy rifle and headed towards the bay, leaving the lieutenant in charge of the ship controls.

The lieutenant sighed and quietly disabled the ship's engine. Since unknown entities had boarded the ship, the protocol didn't allow them to leave the planet's atmosphere.

The protocol left them with two choices. Either they cleansed all foreign presence aboard, or initiated the self-destruct.

Under no circumstances should such advanced technology fall into the hands of primitives.

Such old protocols had never been enacted, because no primitive civilization had ever been able to board the ships. At least, not that he knew of.

The lieutenant sealed the doors shut so that only Lo Da could open it with his authority as the commander, or as he called himself, the shipmaster.

The next thing he did was to prepare an SOS message to the nearest Collective fleet. As soon as he received the report of any soldier aboard being attacked, he'd alert them.

The fleet would have to perform a jump to get here. Which they'd likely do only in the event of the death of a crew member, since such jumps cost a lot of energy, and the cost would have to be paid by the survivors.

It would probably send entire generations of them into debt. That's why they rarely sent rescue signals. They'd rather die than call for help.

But in the event of sending the message, once the fleet arrived, it would be up to them to decide what to do with the planet and its inhabitants.

They'd either strip the planet of its resources or consume its entire energy to recuperate energy for the next jump.

However, the lieutenant hoped that wouldn't be the case.